Sony patents airbag for hardware

THE MAKER of exploding batteries, Sony, is filing for a US patent on a liquid airbag for hard drives.

Sony's big idea is that if you wrap your hard drive in a fluid filled bag it will protect it if the outer case suffers a shock.

The technology could be used in mobile devices such as cameras and media players, smartphones and laptops.

According to It World, here, Sony boffins rejected the standard idea of floating the electronics between two immiscible fluids, or using a gel-like viscous substance.

Its idea uses a fluid-filled inner skin containing "biasing units" to keep the electronics central, and a system of "irises" that adjust their resistance to liquid flow according to the force of impact. The liquid contained in the bags used could be water or silicon oil. µ